The Russian airline behind a fatal plane crash hasn’t paid its staff in two months

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Kogalymavia, the Russian company whose charter plane crashed in Egypt last weekend, killing all 224 people on board, had not paid its staff in two months, according to employment watchdog group Rostrud (link in Russian) and local media reports.

The Russian news site Lifenews (link in Russian) cited Kogalymavia CEO Alexander Snagovsky as saying the airline owed workers about 70 million rubles ($1.1 million), and reported that the pilot of the downed flight hadn’t been paid for three months.

A representative from Russian’s tourism industry told the AFP that, despite its financial and safety difficulties, Kogalymavia “has a good reputation on the tourist market, the biggest tour agents work with it.”

The Airbus plane that crashed in Egypt on Oct. 31 was 18 years old, and had previously been flown by Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines, Turkey’s Onur Air, and Saudi Arabia Airlines, according to the Russian business daily Kommersant.